Home page redesign: Filtering through the feedback

Online readers of the reviewjournal.com site woke up Tuesday to a redesigned home page. Some loved it. Others, not so much.

I've been through the launch of several iterations of the home page since we began our online edition in January 1997, and the comments that came pouring in today mirror those we've gotten each time we’ve made significant changes to the site. About a third of those sharing an opinion hate the new look and want us to immediately revert to the old site; another third has the opposite reaction, praising the update; the final third falls into the indifferent category.

It's very evident that no two visitors to reviewjournal.com use the site the same way. It's also apparent that several users don't see things the way they've been designed. The team at the Review-Journal responsible for the changes endlessly tested nearly every flavor of Web browser available now on all the common operating systems, both on Windows-based PCs and Macintosh computers. We've heard of some bugs from some users on specific systems with particular browsers. The staff is working on these, and other minor bugs.

Take a look at comments on the video tour of the new home page for a sampling of the response.

The changes to the home page will be followed by similar changes to the section "landing" pages and changes to the individual story pages. Be sure to take the new Calendar section for a spin, as well as the vastly improved Search feature.

We take all the comments and criticism seriously and will use it to help drive decisions on pending changes. Thanks for your input. All of it.